mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

A 23 MW data centre is all you need

arXiv 2203.17265 ↗First posted 31 Mar 2022cs.LGcited by 0

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Abstract (arXiv)

The field of machine learning has achieved striking progress in recent years, witnessing breakthrough results on language modelling, protein folding and nitpickingly fine-grained dog breed classification. Some even succeeded at playing computer games and board games, a feat both of engineering and of setting their employers' expectations. The central contribution of this work is to carefully examine whether this progress, and technology more broadly, can be expected to continue indefinitely. Through a rigorous application of statistical theory and failure to extrapolate beyond the training data, we answer firmly in the negative and provide details: technology will peak at 3:07 am (BST) on 20th July, 2032. We then explore the implications of this finding, discovering that individuals awake at this ungodly hour with access to a sufficiently powerful computer possess an opportunity for myriad forms of long-term linguistic 'lock in'. All we need is a large (>> 1W) data centre to seize this pivotal moment. By setting our analogue alarm clocks, we propose a tractable algorithm to ensure that, for the future of humanity, the British spelling of colour becomes the default spelling across more than 80% of the global word processing software market.

Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 6 of its 41 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 31 Mar 2022.

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6 of 41 references.

References · 6

  1. 2017Attention Is All You Needcited by 60,361
  2. 2020Language Models are Few-Shot Learnerscited by 32,419
  3. 2021Skillful Precipitation Nowcasting using Deep Generative Models of Radarcited by 311
  4. 2022TimeLMs: Diachronic Language Models from Twittercited by 131
  5. 2015All you need is a good initcited by 124
  6. 2014Video (language) modeling: a baseline for generative models of natural videoscited by 92

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